MLS Cup final: LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo - fan previews

As LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo prepare to meet in Saturday's MLS Cup final, we ask supporters of every other MLS team how their sides got on against the finalists this year and who they expect to win the cup

There can be only one winner... Sounders FC defender Adam Johansson lies on the field after LA Galaxy's Mike Magee scores against his side. Photograph: Mark J. Terrill/AP

And then there were two. Only LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo remain in the competition and on Saturday night one of them will win MLS Cup. But who? In a change from our usual fan preview format we decided to ask representatives from the other seventeen teams in MLS, who've seen their teams play these sides throughout this season, for their impressions of the finalists and who they think will win the cup. They all replied (some through gritted teeth) and the results are below.

LA are the favorites, but despite playing at home and with yet another David Beckham storyline arcing to its apparently natural conclusion, this year's final has much less of an air of a coronation, and that's reflected in our previews. So the majority favoring LA is not overwhelming and nobody's predicting anything but a tight game, with Houston widely described as a much stronger team than last year, who should push LA all the way.

You'll be hearing from our fan reps one more time this year when we do our end of season reviews, but for now read what they have to say about the final, have your say in the comments and to give you a little more idea of the part some of these teams played in the action leading up to this point, here's a film of all 30 goals from the 2012 playoffs so far:

Due to the scheduling weirdness imposed by the league, the Fire faced Houston three times (with an additional playoff knockout match) and LA only once. The first match against the Dynamo ended in a rain-soaked-and-shortened 1-1 draw after numerous delays for horrendous weather on the southwest side of Chicago. I felt that the Fire had a real chance to win this match as they were playing significantly better than the visitors, but it was not to be. The second meeting was a scoreless draw in Houston with both clubs on short rest in incredibly hot and humid conditions (are there any other conditions in that part of Texas?) The Fire took a commanding 3-1 victory back at Toyota Park to round out the regular season series before meekly falling to the Dynamo 2-1 in the playoff knockout round.

As for LA, the only game between the teams fell on one of those blazingly-hot mid-afternoon summer kickoffs that most Fire supporters despise. Despite missing most starters due to injury or national team call-ups, LA took control of the game in a 2-0 win.

If I watch the final I suspect I'll be on Houston's side, due to the presence of Calen Carr and the fact that since the Dynamo eliminated the Fire they may as well win it all for all I care. I do think they have a much better shot at the title than they did last time around, mostly because Brad Davis is not injured. That said, I think it'll go to penalties at 1-1 with the Galaxy winning the game from the spot.

Chivas USA had a tough year against the MLS Cup finalists, with only one bright spot. Let's start with the bad news. In four games against the Houston Dynamo and LA Galaxy this season, Chivas lost three, by a combined 8-1 margin. They nearly played the Dynamo to a scoreless draw on opening day, but a late goal by Andre Hainault gave Houston a 1-0 win. And in their second and third games against the Galaxy, Chivas were crushed 3-1 and 4-0. But the less said about those matches, the better. The good news is that Chivas beat the Galaxy 1-0 in their first meeting of the season, and broke a record in the SuperClasico for futility that stretched back five years. There weren't many high points to Chivas' season, but that win had to be one of the best moments in 2012.

It is safe to say that Chivas fans will overwhelmingly be rooting for Houston in the final, but the Galaxy look like a good bet to repeat as Cup winners. If any other team had come out of the West, I think Houston could either be considered an even shot or a favorite, based on their experience. But the Galaxy have as much experience, plus they beat the Dynamo last year. I hope I am wrong, but I think the Galaxy will win 2-0.

The Rapids faced the Galaxy three times this season, losing the firsttwo and managing a draw in the final encounter. In their onlyencounter (the league scheduling is maddening) and on the final day ofthe season the Rapids beat a Houston team that consisted mainly ofreserves.

This matchup pits arguably the two best managers in the league againstone another. Dom Kinnear's record over the past six seasons is highlyimpressive. After winning back-to-back cups he has essentially rebuilta new team that has made to consecutive cup finals. Bruce Arena has anembarrassment of riches at his disposal but has gotten them to thepromiseland yet again.

With Robbie Keane scoring at will it is hard to go against LA, but Ithink Brad Davis and company have been the underdog all season andHouston will conjure up a win in LA--with no supporters bans as well.

My Crew tied a depleted LA team 1-1 in August. And the home and away matches against Houston both ended 2-2. Drawing both the cup finalists sums up the Crew's mediocre season pretty well.

Both teams had a somewhat disappointing regular season with LA and all its stars finishing fourth in the West, and Houston beating out my beloved Columbus Crew by just one point to take fifth in the East. However, both teams finished the season strong. Both teams defeated their conference's topped ranked team in the playoffs (San Jose in the West and Kansas City in the East). And, both teams looked fairly comfortable winning their semi-final series.

On paper, I think the edge has to go to LA. They have the big names, the fire power, and home field advantage. There is also the emotional boost of Beckham having his storybook ending on his last MLS game. However, there is something about this Houston team. They seem to be able to pull it together when needed, and they'll be out for revenge from last year's 1-0 loss. They'll play hard, and if they can get a go ahead goal, I think the Houston defense can hold off the L.A. attack down the stretch. It'll be an even game, but I'll go with 2-1 Houston… somehow.

How did we do against those two teams - without checking, I want to say we drew with the Galaxy and played out a tight win at the Home Depot Center, but for the most part LA is just a team that Dallas does not pay attention to and we generally just figure we have more important things to worry about than what David Beckham's eating or wearing. They do get preferential treatment from the league and that should be annoying but if I had to choose between the two sides, well it's no secret that we at Dallas hate Houston. In our only game against them this year we were close to taking a point until Jair Benitez went crazy and got himself red-carded, and our shorthanded side gave up a late goal to lose the game.

Predictions for the final? David Beckham is going to be mentioned every five seconds and Donovan is going to dive in the box. A winner? I hate to make predictions, but basically I'm rooting for LA to win it any way they can, and truthfully, rooting for a meteor.

Thanks to the unbalanced MLS schedule, United played LA once way back in March, and Houston three times in the regular season, and twice more in the playoffs. United didn't fare all that well against the two sides, but only two of those six games were at RFK. United traveled to LA the second week of the season and was at the wrong end of a 3-1 decision. United beat Houston at RFK in the regular season, but fell at BBVA Compas Stadium twice 1-0, and 4-0. Due to the way that United rounded into form in the last third of the season, and the ups and downs of their form, it's very hard to gauge LA and Houston from those results. But the playoffs offered a good look. I predicted Houston and LA in the preseason predictions here. Dominic Kinnear just has something magic in how he coaches the most out of his side at the end of the year. The top end of LA's roster has more talent, but the average leans towards Houston, and their fighting sprit cannot be discounted. Prediction: Houston 2 - LA 1.

The Montreal Impact drew 1-1 against the LA Galaxy earlier this year in front of 60,860 Montreal soccer fans, pre-teens/teens and soccer moms that were present to respectively cheer for the local team, David Beckham and David Beckham. Davy Arnaud opened the score and who else but Beckham tied it up with a classical free kick. Is the Montreal Impact a better team than the LA Galaxy? Not really, but the competitive attitude the club showed embodied the team spirit that Jesse Marsch was trying to instil back then. Against Houston, both teams exchanged blowouts in their first 2 encounters (5-2 for Mtl & 3-0 for Houston) and a final game that ended in a 1-1 draw. Outside the actual scores that do reflect entertaining games, different incidents (outside the famous Ching-Gate) have created a hope of a MLS rivalry between both clubs. The Moffatt assault on Felipe, the intense physical play between players in all three games, it almost seems that these two teams were made to face each other.

Prediction for the final: I am putting a lot of stock (and some pressure while we are at it) on Oscar Boniek Garcia being the key player for this game and one who might determine the outcome of the game, either way. Both teams match up in general as both can attack and take it to the next level. It's not which defense will play better but which one can fold. The Galaxy have that individual talent that can make a difference in a heartbeat whereas the Dynamo are more team oriented with roles more than a whole pack of "stars''. The LA defense has gotten better with the return of Omar González but Houston can still find holes and the Honduran with a Polish name will have his say.

To pick between the two MLS Cup finalists, as a Revs supporter, is to take an unforgiving trip down memory lane. The Revs lost to the LA Galaxy in 2002 and 2005, both in extra time. The Revs have also had the pleasure of dual Cup Final defeats to the Houston Dynamo. The first, in 2006 saw Taylor Twellman score in the 113th minute only to see Brian Ching score less than a minute later to force penalties. 2007 again saw the Revs score first but the lead again didn't stick against the Dynamo.

During the Revs irrelevant 2012 season they met both Cup Finalists on a total of three occasions. The only truly memorable match was the Revs 3 to 1 victory over the then struggling Galaxy. Even though that match was something of a false dawn for Jay Heaps and his men perhaps that moment of enjoyment at the hands of Los Angeles is enough to push Revs fans to support the Western Conference side. For this lifelong New Englander, however, the MLS Cup is just another time to reflect on what could have been.

Despite a well-loved conspiracy theory that there is nothing this league wants more than weekly Galaxy-Red Bulls games, the two sides only faced each other once this year back in May. New York took advantage of LA's "blue period" of dire 2012 performances, grinding out a defensive 1-0 win as part of what would be a five game win streak. The Galaxy have shaken off most of the rust since that game, with the critical return of Omar Gonazlez to the back line and Robbie Keane finding reason to summersault game after game.

Houston, on the other hand, got three chances against New York, including a strange back-to-back sequence of two league games in two weeks. While Houston came out with a dominant 2-0 win over the Red Bulls in the one match at BBVA, their road performances were lessons in how poor Houston can be, full of defensive errors and misfiring offense. It's hard to forget the terrible backpass that allowed Kenny Cooper to bungle in a game-winner in May, or Mac Kandji's one-on-one miss in August.

These are two very similar sides - capable of offensive bursts, stingy defensive, and moments of head-slapping errors. I think the result will sway on a performance by Houston's Mac Kandji. Kandji wasn't with Houston last year and can (obviously) be hit or miss, but it's hard to forget that this is a guy who tore his ACL while forcing an MLS Cup-winning own goal for Colorado in 2010. If he's terrible, then Houston have no hope, but if he can bring his finishing shoes - and I think he will - Houston could easily glide to a 3-2 victory to avenge last year's loss.

From the distant perspective of Timbers fans, the favorite in Saturday's MLS Cup Final has to the Galaxy. The Galaxy has won four of the last five matches against Portland, several times toying with the Timbers as cat with mouse. By contrast, this year's only match with the Dynamo was a scoreless draw that took place more than six months ago – well before the arrival of Boniek Garcia and while questions were still being asked about Will Bruin.

Nevertheless, the three games with LA this year each offered their own lesson. In the 3-1 loss on April 14, Portland hung tough for 80 minutes, only to have Juninho cash in the game-winning goal (Lesson: It's not always the stars that get you; see "Magee, Mike"). On June 17, Portland's backline allowed Todd Dunivant to head in the winner while the Timbers argued about a non-call (Lesson: Cooler heads prevail). In a 5-3 shellacking in Portland, both Beckham and Donovan scored twice and Robbie Keane stuck a final knife in the corpse. (Lesson: Sometimes there's nothing you can do.)

The Dynamo won't lose their poise; moreover, they've got a couple of guys – notably Brad Davis – who can do the unstoppable. Had the two clubs played in the Nov. 24-25 window, you'd have to like Houston's chances against an LA side that was clearly out of gas after holding off Seattle. But they didn't. Soo …Los Angeles 2, Houston 1 (extra time)

Houston beat us twice on the road this year, but I guess nobody wins at BBVA Stadium, so we can't be too upset about that. And other than that we beat both these teams despite having a poor season. An 89th minute winner from Michael Farfan got us our first ever win over LA, in LA on July 4th, just before their season picked up and we had a 3-1 home win against the Dynamo in September, when I think Freddy Adu got a couple before being subbed out. Houston are a funny team for us - they'd never beaten us before the playoffs last year then beat us twice in them. Kinnear knows how to get a side to peak at the right time of year.

Having said that, I just think that while Houston are a better all round team than last year, I just think that LA playing at home with Donovan on form and Beckham's last game and all that will just be too much for them. LA to win.

Well it is almost MLS Cup time again, and hopefully the matchup between the LA Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo will be a bit more dynamic and exciting than it was last year when these same two teams battled to an 1-0 win by the Galaxy. As a Real Salt Lake fan, I am left wondering what could have been?

RSL only faced Houston once this year and it was a 1-0 loss in Houston (a place RSL has never won) and had RSL made it to the final it would be the Dynamo's turn to be the away team, but sadly things didn't turn out that way. The LA Galaxy were probably thanking their lucky stars for Mario Martínez, who was able to score the only goal of the RSL vs Seattle playoff series. RSL had simply dominated the Galaxy this year, two wins at the Home Depot Center, and even in the 3-2 loss to the Galaxy at Rio Tinto, RSL was the superior team, oh one has to wonder what the Western Conference final might have looked like if it had been a repeat of last years RSL vs LA match? Again, things just didn't turn out that way.

So now we are left with the MLS swan song of David Beckham, this will be his third MLS Cup appearance since joining the league, and as his last match you have to expect that everyone (MLS, ESPN, and the crowd at the Home Depot Center) will be looking to make it all about him, but for me I think that the song might just hit a sour note as I am going to pick the Dynamo to pick up their third MLS Cup title since moving to Houston. This one ends up 2-1 for the Dynamo.

During the regular season, the San Jose Earthquakes had their one and only "home" loss on St. Patrick's Day at AT&T Park in San Francisco against the Houston Dynamo. The only goal came on a penalty from Jon Busch going up for the ball near Brian Ching and causing the Houston man to fall to the ground. Brad Davis converted much the chagrin of many Quakes fans. As for the other AEG team, San Jose won the 3 game series 2-0-1; all with dramatic comebacks to come away with points. There was the first down 2 - 0 and won it 3 - 2 on a last second Alan Gordon goal in LA. Or the down 3 - 1 and won it 4 - 3 in front of a sell out 50K+ Stanford crowd. Finally came the ping pong of score that ended 2 - 2 for the last regular season home Quakes match. This led to the Quakes facing LA in the playoffs winning the first leg 1 - 0 and then with the MLS Defender of the Year runner up going down hurt in the 10th min of the second leg, The Galaxy went on to crush the hopes of "Boys in Blue" and knocked out the Supporters' Shield winner with a scoreline of 3 - 1.

As for the Cup, here's hoping that the Houston Dynamo can prove themselves at Home Depot Center and walk away with their third MLS Cup. I predict Houston wins it 2 - 1 in extra time.

If there was ever an example to use for homefield advantage for the Sounders, this year's MLS Cup finalists, Houston Dynamo & Los Angeles Galaxy would be the benchmarks, both having faired poorly during the regular season against the Sounders at Century Link Field, with Seattle beating the Dynamo 3-1 early in the season then in the case of the Western Conference MLS Cup representatives, the Galaxy, beating them at home by scores of 4-0, 2-0 then ultimately 2-1 in the second leg of their playoff matchup. The Sounders haven't yet played a match at Houston's new stadium since they moved to the Eastern Conference, but certainly struggled against the Galaxy at Home Depot center, losing 1-0 late in the season and then getting shellacked at Home Depot Center 3-0 in the first leg, ultimately leading for a spirited comeback at home that just wasn't enough to make up for not showing up in the first leg. The Galaxy are a stacked team that got into a rhythm at the right time, and I don't see any reason why they won't repeat as MLS Cup champions the way they've been playing the latter part of the season. I predict a similar result to last year's MLS Cup, with the LA Galaxy controlling the match and possession for the most part but Houston keeping it tight. 2-0 Los Angeles.

It's hard to judge Sporting KC's performance this year against Los Angeles, the two teams met only once early in the season. At the time LA was a bit out of form, having lost two of their first three games and bowing out of the Champions' League to Toronto FC. The LA defense was still out of sorts and without Omar Gonzalez.

On the other side, Houston continued to be the pain for KC to deal with. The two teams met five times this season, including twice in the playoffs. KC only won one of those games, the final one when they needed to win by two but only got the one goal. Dominic Kinnear has owned Peter Vermes and KC, they've still yet to really figure out that team and it's seen them eliminated from the playoffs two years in a row.

While KC hasn't figured out Houston, I think at home, Los Angeles will be able to take care of business against the Dynamo again, 2-1, goals by Keane, Magee, and Davis.

Toronto FC actually did relatively well against these two teams this year. Starting with Houston, and whereas TFC gave up 9 points to Kansas City, to Chicago, to Columbus and to DC, Houston only took 5 from the 3 games. The first meeting saw TFC come as close as anyone to getting a win in Houston, taking a 3-1 lead, only to give it up, letting Will Bruin score the equaliser, his second of the game, in injury time. The second meeting was a very Houston 2-0 win, a set piece and then a Brad Davis to Brian Ching goal. The third meeting of the year saw TFC with a late equaliser for a 1-1 draw.

As for L.A, well now you're making me nostalgic for the start of the season, that Concacaf Champions league quarter final, when after a 2-2 draw in front of 47,000 at the Rogers Centre, TFC went down to L.A for the second leg, and came back with a stunning 2-1 win, surely evidence that this would finally be the year that things went right for TFC. Not so much. LA did of course get their season going eventually and the teams met again late in the season, a 4-2 LA win that was nowhere near as close as 4-2 suggests.

Prediction: Houston will be better than they were in last year's final, but probably still not quite good enough, I'll go 2-1 LA after extra time, Mike Magee with the winner.

Curse the LA Galaxy and the golden balls they rode in on. The Vancouver Whitecaps had a difficult time against LA this season (and last), and were eliminated by them 2-1 in the play-in game. The good news is that those golden balls are leaving the City of Angels, so we won't have to read so much about why Bruce Arena allows him to fly around the world instead of playing soccer. If we're lucky maybe Landycakes will quit as well, leaving just unidentified fan Robbie Keane to carry the load.

We fared better against Houston, beating them 3-1 at BC Place in the only contest between the two sides. They weren't very good on the road this season, and we benefited from meeting them earlier in the season when they were struggling. Houston don't play the most attractive brand of soccer, and there isn't much of a history between the teams, so I really have no interest in them winning or losing. I would be grasping at straws to find some reason to cheer for them (Dom Kinnear is a good interviewee? Hainault is Canadian?).

It feels slightly wrong to cheer for someone because you dislike them less, but I imagine that's how a lot of MLS fans feel right now. It's certainly a common sentiment among the Southsiders. Go Houston. I guess.

Please make your predictions below.

We will have MLS Cup coverage every day this week, concluding with extensive reporting of the final, including a minute-by-minute liveblog of the game.